SUMMARY
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has praised the ‘Digital India’ campaign that is being aggressively promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Nadella said that the ‘Digital India’ framework had made India stand out and called the ‘India Stack’ very impressive
Nadella called the Digital India framework, an inspired set of choices that were made because the state chose to prioritise digital infrastructure for the public good
Inc42 Daily Brief
Stay Ahead With Daily News & Analysis on India’s Tech & Startup Economy
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has praised the ‘Digital India’ campaign that is being aggressively promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government since 2015, which is said to have transformed the prospects and the opportunity in India’s tech industry.
Speaking at the Global Technology Summit, 2020, organised by Carnegie India, Nadella said that the ‘Digital India’ framework had made India stand out. He said the “India stack is pretty impressive”.
“Bill Gates is always talking about how can we [sic] take what has been developed in India and make it available as a stack to all countries,” the Microsoft CEO said at the event.
Nadella, who was born in Hyderabad and graduated from Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka, called the Digital India framework, an inspired set of choices that were made because the state chose to prioritise digital infrastructure for the public good for the country.
He talked about Microsoft’s investment in India’s local entrepreneurs, also lauding Indian companies as ‘world-class’.
In June this year, Microsoft’s venture fund M12, set up an office in Bengaluru to bolster fundraising and partnership opportunities for Indian growth stage startups — Series A to Series C. Indian startups such as Innovaccer and FarEye have received investments from M12. In the same month, the US-based tech giant announced the launch of a ‘Microsoft for Agritech Startups’ programme to bolster agritech startups in India.
Meanwhile, speculations about Microsoft planning investments in Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance, as well as Bengaluru-headquartered social media company ShareChat, have been doing the rounds for a while.
Nadella said India has benefitted from 4G and that 5G will be rolled-out soon. “We have to make sure every rural community in every underserved community has access to broadband and we’re working with nonprofits to ensure that,” he added.
The Indian government’s department of telecommunications (DoT) will shortly announce the spectrum bands for the rollout of the fifth-generation mobile networks or 5G, an official from the department said at an event earlier this month.
Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.